Review: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ove is a man of action. He is also soon to be Sixty years old. He has lost all he ever cared for and now stands at the verge of becoming purposeless and well.. useless. But he wasn’t always like that. He was a self-made, self-reliant man who believed in doing things. He was respected by his colleagues and he was strong and able. He had fixed beliefs about right and wrong and these were non-negotiable. In his opinion there was no middle ground but only white or black. Ove fought for what he believed in even if the whole world stood against him. And, when others wouldn’t listen or get things done he would do them all by himself. He made his house by putting together every brick and iron and bolt. He was a man of firm beliefs and even firmer hands. A doer, a man of action, a man who found love after years of despair and hopelessness. A man who liked control and lived by principles. Ove was indeed a rare man in a world that no more believed in getting its hands dirty instead in getting things done by others. A world where loyalty and hard work were not valued but change for the sake of it and quick fixes were. A world heavy on words but light on work. Ove though had been a functional man since he could remember, not for him the fancy concepts of leisure and luxury. Ove therefore could not trust or understand the new age man. He thought of them as incompetent and fools. And because of this attitude he was often mistaken as rude and anti-social by those around him.

For almost 40 years, Ove couldn’t care, he still didn’t, about what people thought. Because, he had his wife, Sonja his only companion, his shining light, his one true love, his shield against the world; She could handle the world, while he could keep doing what he liked most, fixing things, making things and working with machines. But now she is gone, and so has his job, that kept him occupied for almost half a century. In a matter of months he has lost all his reasons to live. He is all alone. Can he continue to live in a society that seems to have no place for a man like him? A life devoid of purpose and action and without the only person Ove ever loved and who loved him back? This then is the central theme of the story. It’s about Ove and whether he can go on and find something or someone to live for in a world where he cares for or loves no one.

This is an idea full of amazing possibilities. It presents an opportunity to have an incisive insight into the life of an old, grumpy man, an chance to look at the world from his perspective, to hear his views, to learn about his insecurities and fears, to understand what it feels when there’s not much left to look forward to and life is mostly about what has already gone. A time when future is not full of promises but an obligation to live for others. When memories are all you have of the best time of your life. Sadly, in our daily existence, we do not hear the voice of the old as much as we ought to. All the sounds and sights are for the youth, the ad campaigns, the Movies, the TV shows are aimed at the young. The old and the elderly are confined to the farthest corners of our society, only to be remembered when we need their blessings or support. They gradually turn into fixtures; present but never seen or heard or noticed. Nobody seems to care about what they feel or what they want to say. It is therefore that I feel that this book by ‎Fredrik Backman, if only at a very miniscule level, does a worthy and honourable job of bringing this marginalised section of our societies into the spotlight. And I think it deserves plenty of praise for doing so. It lends the old people a voice and a personality. I only wish it could have done more, given us a greater, deeper look into what it means to get old. A task it only partially does.

I must confess , I sometimes do wonder what it feels to be old and lonely. How difficult it would be to survive in a place where you cannot understand things happening around you and where no one cares to explain them to you. To whom would you confide in when all who were of your time and age have already become memories? Who would you share your thoughts and fears with when there’s no one to listen? What would be your reason to live on, why would you even want to go on? I think the author tries to explore all these themes and does so with some amount of success, though, in my opinion, not with complete conviction. Overall however he does a good job of bringing these ideas into mainstream and creating a certain amount of sensitivity towards them. It is a noble attempt.

The book is decently written. The plot moves forward at a reasonable pace losing steam only once or twice during its length. It is helped by having only a handful of characters which allows the narrative to be fairly taut and concise. However, I personally am of the opinion, that some of the characters do take away from Ove and Sonja’s story of which I wish there was more of. They are to be honest important to plot development and the message that the author wanted to give which is of love, care and being wanted. But, I did find some of them slightly irritating and the situations involving their interaction with Ove, a bit melodramatic or forced. It seemed the author wanted to keep the tone of the book as light hearted as possible with a few poignant and sad moments thrown in to keep the story grounded. But, in his efforts, I thought he probably sacrificed the depth of experience and perspective that the story had potential to reveal. It could have been better if the story had focussed more on the psyche of Ove and his thought process rather than on the other characters. Talking of characters I should not forget to mention the cat which is one of the major characters in the book. The cat it felt to me was a spiritual and symbolic representation of Sonja. I could be wrong though.

All said and done, A Man Called Ove is a story one should read, if only to get a perspective on old age and life in general. The story provides a peek into what it feels to be alone and old and why love, care and the feeling of being wanted are so important for us to live on. The book has moments of real depth and feeling but that doesn’t make the book heavy or burdened, because the author balances these heart wrenching moments of profundity with funny situations that lighten up the tone of the narrative. I wish there was more here, a greater exploration of old age in all its shades but atleast there is an attempt at bringing this unattractive and gloomy phase of our existence to the forefront. For that alone the author deserves to be appreciated. I would love to give it 3.5 stars but as that is not possible on Goodreads I shall go with 3 perhaps.




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